Air Travel advice flying in Diapers

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Even if the pass “only” costs $100, it’s still not right that people who can afford that don’t have to get inspected as thoroughly as poor people. So only poor people bomb planes? There’s no logic to the pass.

It's called "Pre-Check" because it allows them to do some of the screening in advance. I have it because I need to fly frequently for work, and I had to get a short background investigation done to verify that I'm a low risk for bombing the plane. Because they already know who I am and that I'm low risk, they don't need to do as much screening at the airport, leaving them with more manpower to do the screenings for the passengers who they haven't already done a background check on, and have to therefore look at more carefully.

It's not about having money - once I pay for all my medical expenses, I don't have much of that left anyway. It's about having already completed part of the screening process in advance.

It's a bit like an express lane at the grocery store, where people who won't take long don't have to wait in line behind people who will take a long time. Or an online order pickup counter at a restaurant, where people who have done the time-consuming parts in advance can get through quickly. Is the online order pickup counter at a restaurant so that rock people can get their food quicker, or is it so that people who you know in advance will not take long can get in and out quickly?

The reason they charge for Pre-Check is that the background investigation are outsourced to a contractor, and they don't want to pass the cost of my background investigation on to you. I'm not sure I see why that is unfair.

 

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@Jason I can’t believe you had to go through that. You’re lucky you made it to your plane because if they’d made you kiss your flight, you would have been the one who had to buy a new flight, likely at a wayyyyyyy higher price, if you’d even been able to get one.

These stories are adding up to me never wanting to fly again.

 

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@ltapilot People who can’t afford the pre-check deserve those exact same freedoms, too - to be prescreened, FOR FREE.

The problem with your analogy between TSA with people in the pick-up line at the restaurant compared to those sitting down to eat is this: those restaurant people are all spending the same amount of money. The take-out customers don’t have to pay more money than dine-in to get through check-out faster.

If you don’t see how charging for prescreening wastes the time of the poor but not the wealthy, then clearly, you’re elite with plenty of money.

 

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@snow The flight was a return flight from Denmark to New York. I was going through customs to get back into the country. Maybe this wasn’t actually TSA. Probably a mistake on my part. I stand corrected.

 

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Snow: Yes, I had a good job with decent pay and benefits, in the end. It did require flying to and from work. I worked hard to get that job - and it was not as an "officer". I started as an ordinary Deck Hand - "unlicensed", it's called. It is hard to drive around Alaska - it took about 16 years, until the last 8 years, to get a permanent job near where I lived. We moved there for that job. (I had moved to where my wife's job was, years before, so fair is fair.) My job was seasonal, in that winter meant working relief and never knowing which ship and which run and which days. In the early days of TSA and security screening, I remember lines stretching so far down the airport, the airlines sent agents through the lines asking if you were on a certain flight, and moved you to the front so you didn't miss the flight - and that was even when I arrived more than the 2 hours before the flight; and the plane still left 20-40 minutes late. I had to do 4-5 month trips at sea to pay for the transportation costs, sometimes. My son and daughter grew up seeing me half a year - and visa versa.
Did my body start betraying me at 50? Did I work it beyond it's capacity? Do I just have poor genetics? Here I am on this D*** forum for the same reason everyone else here is. I guess I'm lucky it didn't start when i was 5 or 35.
So, Yeah, I am one of those rich types. I paid my dues, or so I tell myself. So, yeah, I was able to afford schooling - college and trades - but that was back in the days when an ordinary American could afford to go to school - as long as it wasn't M.I.T or something. It took 6 years alternating schooling and working to get near that first graduation - and them I got drafted. I was 25. I got paid $286.83/month in boot camp. Pre-Tax. Support a wife and son on that. And I got my college NDEA Loan paid off in 4 years in the service. I didn't see my son more than twice a year, those first 3 years.
So thank you very much. Don't thank me for my service. In their bizarre wisdom, the Service sent me to the Arctic, then Alaska, then the Antarctic. So for 8 years of time in, I have no Viet Nam ribbons/medals. I don't qualify for the VA benefits. I don't get a military pension.
My mother, who was single after my dad died when I was 8, would be pretty insulted to be told she was "rich" or "elite".
Is there inequality in our system? God is there ever! We're tearing ourselves apart over it.
I have medicare - and retirement medical insurance. I'm part of a dying breed. I recognize how lucky I am - and God help my great grandchildren.
I walked the picket lines, the anti-war marches, the civil rights marches and sit-ins, the union negotiations and strikes. Argued equal right before the Federal Arbitrator for all the reasons from race to sex to ethnicity to religion to you name it. All those years of fighting for progress - and those my age get to watch our fellow Americans give up those hard-fought wins. Not that we ever won the big ones. We are still fighting the same fights my mother spent her life fighting, and she was born in 1907. She never did get equal pay to a man for the same job.
I did my share of working politics, and time counting paper ballots until 2 in the morning.
Did I sin by paying for that TSA pre-check? I don't know. I hit 60 and was tired. I'm not sure it is in the Catholic Canon, but it gets hard, at 75, in this day and age, to avoid the sin of despair.
I try not to be bitter, but it gets harder and harder. Try living on limited income, watching your savings get destroyed by inflation, profiteering, a pandemic that should have been stopped in its tracks...
So, Yeah, no one should have to pay for Pre-Check. It shouldn't be needed. Make the "rich" stand in the long lines and see how fast things change. (They'd pay off the politicians and we'd get Pre-Check back). If First Class wasn't an option on planes, would the rest of the seats be so small and have no leg room? Greta Thunberg (Spelling?) is right: we shouldn't be flying.
You probably know what I'm talking about (Okay: ranting about).
Suggestions? I'm open to suggestions. If I had my choice, I'd pull the covers over my head and hibernate until 2059. (Except they'd get wet. Wetter. Wetest.)
God Bless and Stay Safe.

 

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If you don’t see how charging for prescreening wastes the time of the poor but not the wealthy, then clearly, you’re elite with plenty of money.

I'd rather the government put its resources into more important things like providing healthcare, which I personally believe is a basic human right. Saving a few minutes at the airport and getting to keep your laptop in its bag or your shoes on is, alas, not a basic human right, at least in my way of thinking.

If you think I'm an elitist, then you don't know me very well. As it happens, I am blessed to have enough income that I don't have to worry about keeping a roof over my head and food in the fridge, so in my view I have plenty. I am very far from being perfect, but I don't think I deserve to have my character attacked because I disagree with you. Please feel free to take me to task for my opinions, which can be ill-informed, thoughtless, and even clueless (and usually expressed in far more words than necessary), but I would respectfully ask that you leave my character out of it.

The fact is, I'm here because I need support. I need to know that I'm not alone in my struggles, that the things that are causing me physical pain and emotional distress are not unique. In the same vein, I want to offer support to those whom I can, because I have a lot of experience and I flatter myself that I have the occasional valuable insight. I'd like to think that we can keep it on a level that disagreements are difference of opinion between people who respect one another, not excuses to descend into name-calling and ad hominem attacks.

 

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Maybe time to end this thread.
Its a hard time of year, we have hardships.
Its easy to be bitter about it but harder to be kind and to be kind is hard but we've all worked to overcome hard stuff so let us work this hard to be kind.

 

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@Jason That explains why your strip search experience was ultimately positive then: I’ve flown out of Danmark several times myself, and they’re very mellow people, unlike TSA agents in the U.S.

My best friend is Danish.

 

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I agree with Maymay 1000 percent that this particular thread has run its course. And remembering the time of year this is, let us resolve to be kinder to everyone and to remember the reason for the season! I know we are all frustrated by covid and everything it entails. We would all just love to see it end and disappear for once and for all! But we all need to just hang in a bit longer and put our minds on getting the vaccine and doing what we can to end this covid era.
In the meantime we have all come too far in this forum to devolve into name calling, wishing ill of others and finger-pointing. And for this particular season especially, let's remember that we support and respect each other for who we are and what we go through. We will continue to offer each other a helping and uplifting hand to those who need it. At least that doesn't cost anything but still pays huge dividends!!

 

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I have some screws left in a hip after surgery when I was 16. Every time I go through one of those body X-ray machines those screws show up which subjects me to additional screening. Usually it’s just a winding and my hands get bomb checked. Twice however I’ve gone to a private room for complete search. I really don’t care about what they see or find since I know I’ll never see this one or two guys again. Yes they’ve seen me in my diaper and even though I usually change into a dry diaper before boarding a plane I will wait until I get to my gate area to do that. So yes both times my diaper was wet and I could tell the guy was more embarrassed than I was when he felt my wet diaper. I guess years of going to my doctor diapered and changing out of and putting on a diaper in my health club locker room has removed any concern about what tsa people do.